Google Assistant gets a big makeover at the intersection of voice and touch

The Google Assistant is getting a significant makeover on smartphones, with a new design offering bolder visuals, new controls and tools to assist with voice messaging.

The new version of the Google Assistant takes inspiration from its appearance on Smart Displays, with Google conscious users will be controlling the assistant via voice and touch. As such, users will be able to easily interject into messages dictated to the Assistant, in order to add punctuation or make quick edits.

Likewise there are new controls and sliders that make it easier to manage smart home devices. Some of these changes, which include the ability to control the brightness of smart lights or the volume of the smart speakers, have already rolled out to the Assistant.

Google says Android users will now receive an overview of the day by opening up the Assistant and swiping up on the screen. As usual, this will be curated information based on the time of day and recent interactions.

Finally, the company is giving developers and brands the power to take full advantage of the phone screen. When ordering within the Assistant, Starbucks will now show image thumbnails of recommended workouts. The Food Network now shows larger images from recipes, while FitStar offers a preview of the chosen work out in GIF form.

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In a blog post Google adds: “If you’ve been using your Google Home but haven’t tried out the Google Assistant on phones, now’s a great time to pull out the device in your pocket and find out how voice and touch work together to make life a little easier. You can download the Google Assistant app on iOS, or open the Assistant on your Android phone with a long press of the home button or by adding the Assistant app to your homescreen.”

The changes come less than a week before Google reveals its latest smartphones, the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL at the Made By Google event on October 9.

Will today’s changes make Google Assistant more useful to you? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.